Sinn Féin spokesperson on Health, David Cullinane TD, has called on the Minister for Health to reverse the disastrous Pay and Numbers Strategy recruitment embargo and to implement a safe workforce plan for the health service.
Teachta Cullinane said that workers should not accept excuses for the Government’s mismanagement of the health service, and that they deserved support in demanding safe conditions and dignity for workers and patients.
The TD for Waterford added that workers in the health sector were carrying an unacceptable burden of burnout and stress from before the pandemic, had been pushed to the brink during the pandemic, and are still battling perpetual crisis caused by chaotic mismanagement of the health budget.
Teachta Cullinane said:
“The Government must implement a safe workforce plan for the health service. The health service needs a proper multi-annual workforce plan that joins up training, recruitment, and improved retention. The Minister and the HSE must engage with workers and their representatives to avoid industrial action and put a safe and sustainable workforce plan in place.
“Health workers are being pushed to industrial action by a dangerous, reckless, and harmful recruitment embargo by stealth, called the Pay and Numbers Strategy. Severe recruitment restrictions have been implemented as a blunt tool to manage the Government’s chaotic mismanagement of the health budget.
“All of this is coming to a head and the HSE is facing potential action across hospitals, section 38 organisations, section 39 organisations, within the National Ambulance Service, and a withdrawal of air ambulance services.
“Workers should not accept excuses for the Government’s mismanagement of the health service. Safe staffing and safe working conditions are basic demands. Health workers that I speak with are fed up with the lack of dignity in overcrowded hospitals both for patients and for workers.
“Health and social care workers have carried the health service for the last decade under Fine Gael’s mismanagement. They endured an unacceptable level of burnout and stress before the pandemic, and were pushed to the brink during the pandemic. They are still battling a perpetual crisis, caused by chaotic mismanagement of the health budget.”
